1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a book, and more particularly, to a device, system and method for teaching people how to read in the form of a book that readers can interact with and manipulate to form a plurality of words using all letters and sounds of the alphabet.
2. Description of the Background Art
It is well recognized that knowing how to read is vital to a person's success in society. Notwithstanding, some children have difficulty learning how to read and illiteracy among adults is still an ongoing problem in society. Reading is typically taught by teaching the sounds of letters and groups of letters in a static format and then providing books for practice. Conventional methods for teaching reading are not interactive and fail to effectively teach many children and adults. Reading could be more effectively taught if students could selectively combine letters and sounds and match various letters and sounds with recognizable pictures. If a book or tool existed that allowed students to identify the sounds of letters with recognizable pictures and formulate various words and groups of letters utilizing all letters and sounds of the alphabet, it would allow students to efficiently and selectively form words or sounds using groups of letters with a single tool. There are no devices known in the prior art have that adequately address this solution to teaching reading.
While various educational devices and methods exist for teaching children to read, they fail to teach reading in a true interactive manner and convenient, easily-manipulated format that combine images with letters that illustrate the letter's sound and gives children the tools and knowledge to interchangeably combine letters to make sounds and words as contemplated by the instant invention. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 2,193,048, issued to Vander Velde, discloses a dictionary adapted particularly to teach children in primary school or other non-readers. The dictionary defines words with pictures. U.S. Pat. No. 2,361,154, issued to Schoolfield, discloses teaching material for American and foreign-born children, for learning speech, reading, writing, and vocabulary, which will teach them to read in the conventional direction. The invention includes master cards and a plurality of smaller cards that are used to teach recognition of initial consonants and consonant digraphs vowels, and dipthongs, in printed form, manuscript and cursive writing; sounds of letters; similarities and differences in the formation of letters; rudimentary spelling and word recognition; and neatness and precision. U.S. Pat. No. 2,638,435, issued to Minninger, discloses an educational device primarily designed as a visual aid for assisting young children to learn the art of reading and doing simple arithmetic by sight. The device affords children of both pre-school and school age to acquire substantial vocabulary of useful words, an ability to recognize such words on sight, and acquiring substantial aptitude for doing simple arithmetic. The device includes multiple layers having words displayed thereon and openings therein. U.S. Pat. No. 4,262,431, issued to Darnell, discloses a teaching device for helping children, and specifically slow learners, spelling, reading, and pronunciation. The device includes a three-tiered case having a moveable drawer on each tier; each drawer being divided into compartments. Each compartment contains a plurality of letter pieces. U.S. Pat. No. 4,345,902, issued to Hengel, discloses an educational device having color coded cards using three colors to facilitate teaching and learning the alphabet, the sounds of the alphabet letters, subsequent word skills and sight words. Each letter is marked with a color to indicate the phonetic characteristics. U.S. Pat. No. 4,437,837, issued to Schnettler, discloses an ordered group of instructional elements having a series of sentence indicia thereon. The indicia includes a plurality of alphabetic indicia used to form sentences. U.S. Pat. No. 4,713,008, issued to Stocker, discloses a method of teaching language sounds by associating each symbol with an event or phonetic phenomenon, which produces the sound. U.S. Pat. No. 5,133,665, issued to Engle, discloses a book customized to teach letters, numbers, and words such as a child's name. The front cover has a window or opening through which letters can be seen. The series of letters is formed by having pages of different widths. U.S. Pat. No. 5,788,503, issued to Shapiro, discloses a book designed to help children to read using building blocks of the English language in the form of a ‘tri-gram’ wherein the first card comprises a consonant, second card a vowel, and third card consonant.
The foregoing shows various educational devices known in the art. As is readily apparent, the background art devices do not disclose an educational reading system and method that combines images with letters that illustrate the letter's sound, allows children to easily mix and match letters to explore the sounds and spellings of combined letters, as contemplated by the instant invention. If such a device existed, it would be well received. The instant invention addresses this unfulfilled need in the prior art.